Short personal note, when I was born we lived in an apartment on Descanso Drive a half block south of Sunset Boulevard (the building is still there). We were on the third floor and the only phone in the building was on the wall in the hall on the first floor just outside the manager's apartment. Whenever we'd have a phone call this poor guy would climb two flights of stairs to tell us (it was/is a five story building, so it could have been worse). When I was three (1947) we bought our first house, on Monroe Street (5428 and the house is still there, too) just off of Wilton Place about two blocks east of Paramount Studios. And we got our first phone. I had to memorize the number. We had the GLadstone exchange followed by just four digits. It was a party-line which meant before we could dial out, we had to lift the receiver and listen to see if someone was already on the line. On in-coming calls, it had a distinctive ring which meant it was for us. I don't remember what the ring sounded like, only that manytimes my parents would simply ignore the phone. At the same time I had to memorize my father's business phone number which was easy for a three-four year old, MAdison 1234, I loved that the numbers magically fell in sequence. Most of you will recognise where he worked.

[IMG][IMG]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3134/5...e0ca17fc46.jpg[/IMG][/IMG] If my grandpa and grandma were there, it was a happening place!

Sorry...I couldn't resist.
 

Monkey Business
 

Ha,ha. I just took a closer look at Google Maps. At the very location of the long-lost Monkey Island is a billboard for King Kong. Coincidence, or art imitating life?
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8...keyislandm.jpgGoogle Maps

Fly in with Google Earth if you have it. There's a whacking good hill there that doesn't seem conducive to a monkey park. I have no idea of what the dimensions in terms of acreage the place was but I'm just not seeing it. Was it small?
(Photos again please)
Take a walk around using Street View. There are some interesting possibly tell-tale but maybe not old palm trees on Barham just east of the intersection..
The hill is surrounded with cyclone fencing topped with barbed wire. There's a flat area just to the north of the hill that looks promising with some odd looking (from the air), maybe old concrete wall footing or hillside shoring. Maybe Monkey Island wall remnants.
E_R and I are going to hop that fence and take a closer look around next time he's in town. Right E_R? Right?
Anybody else game? There could be a trespassing rap in it. That's Universal property.

Or...I suppose somebody who knew somebody at Universal could just ask. There has to be somebody there - an old timer or just a history geek (like us) who would know everything we want to know about Monkey Island.
I suppose one has only to ask and keep on asking until they find that person and then get a personal tour...taking photos.
"Hello. I'm representing Norish Los Angeles and we're conducting some research....Monkey Island. We want to know exactly where it was and what if anything remains of it"

Monkey Island, Redux
 

I don't mean to be difficult. But I don't believe the owners/operators/builders of Monkey Island would have built it that far from Cahuenga Boulevard. Look at the map, where are the balance of the lanes created when they chose to create an additional roadway east of the existing Cahuenga Boulevard? Remember it was an additional roadway, not simply a widening of the existing roadway. What we have on the map indicates a single road, what I imagine to be essentially the original improved Cahuenga Pass, that is two lanes tracing primarily the western side of the canyon wall. So where's the rest of it? Remember now, Monkey Island opened for business in 1938. The new road opened in 1941. If Monkey Island was on the east side of what ultimately became the 101 freeway, how far would customers have had to walk when they'd parked their cars and bought their tickets over on the old road? Three hundred yards? Four hundred? Why wouldn't they have built the attraction closer to the road, say fifty yards or twenty five yards? And if they did build it there, when the new roadway came along, that would place Monkey Island between the old road and the new, which would place it in the vicinity of the park or the Hanna-Barbera Studios, not over there in Universal City. I think the new road came along east of Monkey Island. We need boots on the ground, we need some monkey bones.

The Daily Mirror
 

Larry Harnisch, on his excellent blog 'The Daily Mirror' links to his most recent article in the Los Angeles Times tracing the early history of the city through a compilation of about 25 photographs by C. C. Pierce starting in about 1890 and ranging up to about 1925ish. http://ladailymirror.com/ We've seen some of them here but many are new to me.
Among the really fine images is this one that really caught my interest.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7131/7...72561f87_b.jpg
fa_678_pierce20_970
C.C. Pierce Collection/Huntington Library/Los Angeles Times

Circa 1895 photo of Los Angeles taken from top of court house. I can pick out the Pico House and the Brunswig Building (center right), which makes the street angling to the lower right corner New High Street and the street just to its left, running parallel to it, in the foreground, (with what appears to be a handwritten notation on the print) Buena Vista?

Oh my gosh! I just realised what that handwritten notation says. It says 'Justicia'...that's not Buena Vista, that's Justicia Street.

Wing walking over Santa Monica 1918 (Probably scouting for Monkey Island or a decent parking space.)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7243/6...6ffcaa21_b.jpghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmar...n/photostream/

Well, she's pretty clearly looking for something. I didn't think you were supposed to look down.

originally posted by jjon paul
http://imageshack.us/a/img3/1741/smb...fanjonpaul.jpg


I thought I'd post the photos you mentioned MR. Many viewers don't bother with links and I think these photographs from 1939
are simply amazing.

If anything, the photographs posted here are good advertisement for the 'Hollywoodphotos' web site.
I imagine there is a lot more web traffic on this thread than on their website.


http://imageshack.us/a/img195/3449/65324454.jpg
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/...n-restaurants/

I love the art deco advertising pylon with the words 'sea air' in stylized bubbles.







http://imageshack.us/a/img341/2180/swmark2.jpg
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/...n-restaurants/








http://imageshack.us/a/img515/6404/swmark3.jpg
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/...n-restaurants/








http://imageshack.us/a/img689/8353/s...woodphotos.jpg
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/...n-restaurants/





Remember viewers, if you would like to purchase great vintage photographs of Los Angeles and Hollywood visit:
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/

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Very cool pics, BRR. I wonder how they got the darned thing up there to begin with. Do you suppose they flew it in? Landed on top of the building with an arresting wire ala an aircraft carrier? I think that's the only way they could have done it. What a stunt.




Yeah, I know you're right. I should have just pulled and posted them with a clear attribution. Thanks. It was a great looking building. As for me, I'd take any one of the dozen or so cars parked around it in these pics.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z...aw%2520008.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-O...aw%2520009.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...aw%2520009.jpg

Source: https://picasaweb.google.com/henrypeavey/

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/7...9b714e9a_b.jpg
Mike Hammer and some nice grillework
Parklane Pictures, Inc.

'Cheesecake' (Leigh Snowden) sizes up Mike (Ralph Meeker) while he tries to get to the bottom of it in Kiss Me Deadly, while a '54 Buick Roadmaster just sits there and looks magnificent. Parklane Pictures, Inc.

On the 1906 Sanford map this has become Buena Vista-- To right of the handwritten letter J stands the mansion-sized Shorb home- originally 352 / later 412 Buena Vista-- He was a kingpin in the vineyard world then--LAPL has a close in of it in a shabby condition--Between Fort Moore slope and New High St. this residential area was briefly referred to as a tony neighborhood---

Thanks, Rick
 

I suppose one might say I was right both times. lol. I have a reasonable set of maps now and the first one I glanced at made it Buena Vista but the scribble bothered me and after a few hours I went back and tried to decypher it again. By then I'd pulled out some more maps and was really just daydreaming when my eyes lit on Justicia. And a little white bubble with a lightbulb in it appeared above my head!

By the way, for what it's worth, welcome to the thread and thanks for your volunteer work as well.

The Los Angeles Times 1928 Demonstration House, heavy food and arguments.
 

'Miramar' was built in the late 1920s as a joint project between Miramar Estates developers Arthur Weber and George Ley and the Los Angeles Times. The Villa, then known as the "Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home," served two purposes. Primarily, it was to be a model of the "latest developments in domestic technology and home planning ideas." In addition, the Demonstration Home would show skeptical Angelenos the benefits of living far from the city center.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8008/7...61c00e5b_z.jpg
Los Angeles Times Demonstration House 1928
usc digital archive

The progress of the Demonstration Home was chronicled with weekly articles in the Times. The newspaper urged interested readers to view the house for themselves to see firsthand current techniques in home building. According to the Times, thousands of people toured the Villa during its construction and in the month following its completion.

The design of the Demonstration Home was based on a castle in Sevilla, Spain. The carved and painted wooden doors and ceilings were designed with Moorish motifs by Thorwald Probst, inspired by the Cathedral of Teruel in Spain. The Demonstration Home was a showcase for the latest technological inventions-the kitchen boasted a gas range, electric refrigerator and dishwasher, and the spacious three car garage was opened by an electric garage door.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7...25e2708c_b.jpg
villaaurora
rich schmitt/staff photographer/Palisidian-Post

The architecture of Villa Aurora, built in Paseo Miramar in 1928, was loosely based on Roman, Moorish and Middle Eastern elements fused in a style called Mudéjar.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8025/7...28b9a1fc_z.jpg
Door to the Villa Aurora on Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built in 1928.
photo from santa monica public library collection

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8168/7...e822966d_z.jpg
Stained glass window detail in Villa Aurora, Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built in 1928
photo from santa monica public library collection

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8161/7...5a598617_z.jpg
Window detail with ironwork, Villa Aurora, Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Calif., built 1928.
photo from santa monica public library collection

In the 1930s and 1940s, as the horrors of Nazi Germany engulfed the European continent, Los Angeles became a sanctuary for some of Europe's most celebrated artists and intellectuals. Playwright Bertolt Brecht, author Thomas Mann, and composer Arnold Schoenberg all made Southern California their home in the years surrounding World War II and—drawn by the region's favorable climate and the economic opportunities afforded by the Hollywood film industry—scores of other German-speaking exiles joined them.

One of the most prominent exiles to make Southern California home was the German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger, who gave his name to the International Feuchtwanger Society.

Feuchtwanger was an internationally renowned historical novelist whose outspoken criticism of Hitler and National Socialism made him an enemy of the state when the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933. Driven into exile in France, Feuchtwanger was imprisoned by French authorities at the outbreak of World War II—an episode that Feuchtwanger recorded in his memoir, The Devil in France, recently revised and republished by the USC Libraries.

In 1940, Feuchtwanger escaped from an internment camp in Vichy France with the help of his wife and several sympathetic Americans, who then smuggled the couple out of Europe. Deciding upon Southern California as a new home, the Feuchtwangers heard of a sprawling 6,000 square-foot house in Pacific Palisades that had fallen into disrepair. Built in 1928 as the Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home, the house was meant to demonstrate not only the latest innovations in household design, but also the attraction of living far from the city's urban core.

Ironically, it was that very isolation that had undercut the house's value - it and others in the neighborhood were seen as too distant from basic amenities such as schools and medical care. The Feuchtwangers bought the estate for only $9,000, renovated the property and promptly filled the house with books.

Smitten by the climate and the ocean, Lion and wife Marta purchased the villa despite its having been thoroughly neglected while in bank foreclosure. Windows were broken, there was a foot of dirt on the floors, and the garden had turned to weeds. Gradually the Feuchtwangers cleaned up the house, purchased second-hand furniture, and with proceeds from Lion’s book sales purchased more lots for privacy. They built paths down the hillside and bridges over the ravines; Marta planted trees and designed flowerbeds with roses and seasonal varieties. Lion’s generous income from movie rights permitted them both to indulge their hobbies—Marta to buy trees and Lion to assemble a new library.

Soon the Feuchtwanger home became a Mecca for friends and compatriots, including fellow émigrés Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann and Salka Viertel.

Charles Chaplin was a frequent guest, and Charles Laughton gave Shakespearean readings in the garden. The Feuchtwangers and Manns also took turns hosting large dinner parties at which the men read from their latest manuscripts.

Despite the 8 p.m. curfew imposed on them by the wartime U.S. government, which designated the Germans “enemy aliens,” many of the writers accepted the restrictions and used the long evenings productively, working on their manuscripts.

After the war, the House Un-American Activities Committee charged many of the émigrés with “premature antifascism”—being opposed to fascism before the U.S. entered World War II.

Feuchtwanger was called before the committee and action on his citizenship papers was repeatedly delayed. He appeared before the committee a week before he died (in 1958), missing his final, ironic vindication. Marta was told the day before his death that her citizenship request had been granted and that, had he lived, Lion would have become an American citizen as well.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8287/7...886fb7ea_b.jpg
marta-and-lion_brunnen
Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger. Courtesy of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Libraries.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8019/7...bbecc2a0_b.jpg
villa_aurora
Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.


Villa Aurora, as they called the house, soon became a hub of cultural fellowship among the émigré community. The Feuchtwangers were generous hosts and frequently welcomed their fellow exiles, along with American artists and intellectuals, for readings from upcoming works, discussions about art and culture, and to share the latest news from Germany. Feuchtwanger lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1958.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8009/7...6cf29c17a3.jpg
Villa Aurora pipe organ alcove circa 1928

Guests at the Villa were invited to play the pipe organ on the northeast side of the Villa Aurora's living room. Among the noted musicians who played the Villa's organ were Hans Eisler, Ernst Toch and Bruno Walter. Photo courtesy of the Villa Aurora

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8159/7...cfa4bda5_z.jpg
four notable German exiles stroll through the palisades

A group of German exiles stroll through Pacific Palisades in 1937. From left to right: composer Otto Klemperer, anti-Nazi activist Prince Hubertus von Löwenstein, composer Arnold Schoenberg, and composer Ernst Toch. Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/7...701dc332_z.jpg
Brecht and Feuchtwanger at Villa Aurora
kcet

Marta continued to live in the house, pledging it to USC upon her death to establish the Feuchtwanger Institute for the Study of Exile Literature. She also donated Lion’s library (now exceeding 36,000 volumes), their house and the gardens to the university.

His bequeath opened the new and most important chapter in the story of Villa Aurora.

Challenges ensued, most critically the financial support of the Villa. USC’s subtle threat to sell the house to assure the upkeep of the library energized political support in Germany and birthed the idea of the Villa Aurora as an artists’ residence, and the formation of Friends of Villa Aurora, to assure the villa’s financial future.

The Friends, a private nonprofit organization in Berlin, began a major restoration of the house between 1992 and 1994, which involved shoring up the foundation, stabilizing the hillside and replacing all the pipes and electrical circuits.

A major assist in reducing overhead arrived with the designation of the Villa as a Historical Landmark in California, which resulted in a reduction in real estate taxes.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7248/7...be2ceb0b3b.jpg
villa aurora today

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7124/7...dee9853742.jpg
feuchtwangers_marta

Marta Feuchtwanger in the Villa Aurora courtyard. villa-aurora.org

Villa Aurora is located at 520 Paseo Miramar Pacific Palisades, CA

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7251/7...dc97fb18_o.jpg
Paseo2

520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Ca, google maps

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7...3b7ac1f0_o.jpg
Paseo3

520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Ca, google satellite maps

text culled from photo sources. The concept of premature antifascism is courtesy the U.S. government.

:previous: Fantastic post on the 'Villa Aurora' MichaelRyerson! You really put a lot of thought (and research) into it.
I had no inkling of its early days as the 'Los Angeles Times Demonstration House'.
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Oh, and thanks for the interior view of Kings Tropical Inn BifRayRock. That's a pretty rare postcard.
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originally posted by Chuckaluck
http://imageshack.us/a/img26/1842/aa...cechuchalu.jpg

This is a great find C-A-L! I had no idea VENICE had a miniature train.

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